


Date Night

by dianano



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Episode: s02e14 Such Sweet Sorrow p2, F/M, Missing Scene, the Enterprise is a boss ship, with a boss garden and a boss command team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-20 16:24:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18528736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dianano/pseuds/dianano
Summary: Captain Pike and Number One have a date night. Lieutenant Spock interrupts, at their request.





	Date Night

The Deck 5 Arboretum is well-known to be one of the most beautiful areas of the ship. With the exception of a single path leading to a grassy hill in one room, the smaller partitions create many different rooms and spaces. Some of the more private ones, ironically, have more cameras to discourage the crew from sneaking away to make out in them. Spock walks along the trail, knowing it would be much easier to cut across the “Plains” room, but he would run the risk of trampling the captain’s delicate patch of California Poppies.

 

The captain and first officer are in the English Rose Garden room, which is naturally set to dusk like the rest of the room to maintain temporal consistency. There’s a light mist settling on the grass that isn’t covered, and the air is lighter than the tropical rooms Spock had just emerged from. He finds it curious that they would meet here, since neither of them have particularly been observed to enjoy the style of the French formal garden or roses.

 

And their setup, too, is curious. Far from their usual haunts in the briefing room, where they meet to eat and talk shop at the same time, casually turn the cameras off, then reappear only slightly more mussed an hour later, this is what Spock would generally define as a romantic date. Someone, probably the captain, since he tends towards these things, has spread out throw blankets all across the geometric strip of grass. Food is scattered all around, half-eaten and on a variety of plates. Spock nearly trips on Number One’s beloved cream puffs (no chocolate, she’s not a _heathen_ ) when he steps off the path and onto the grass.

 

Oh, and there’s also the slight matter of how they _look._

 

It’s just dark enough that he has difficulty registering the captain, who is closer to him. But Captain Pike is lying on his back, jacket off, and with a long-sleeved t-shirt on instead. He notices now, in fact, that the captain’s jacket is laid over a chair, and Number One’s jacket does the same in another direction.

 

Also, Number One is shirtless.

 

It takes all his precious Vulcan resolve not to do a double take, but Spock’s direct superior is indeed without any sort of top on. She actually does have a white sports bra that took a second to register, he notes with some relief, but in the dark room she does indeed appear to be shirtless. Number One is also lying on her back, hands folded on her stomach, and watching the sky with Pike. They barely seem to care about Spock, though this could be a reaction to recent events.

 

Her jacket is draped over a tall chair like the captain's. In the background, strange music plays just loud enough that One needs to raise her voice to be heard.

 

"We had to keep up appearances. There's that plate of cream puffs that you almost stepped on- move it and lie down with your head in that spot."

 

He obliges, though it seems a bit strange to be so far away from them. Pike and One are both staring up at the star-patterned ceiling, so he does too. In silence. For a long while.

 

Pike turns down the music and breaks the silence. "We're all sitting at positions where our faces can't be seen by the camera. And the music was a senior project by Number One here- it scrambles conversations for most bugs."

 

(Spock is suddenly glad he kept a snarky comment about their music tastes to himself.)

 

A quick look back at the commander's jacket shows that yes, the camera is now obstructed by the chair. Though from what he can see of the marks on One's neck, perhaps losing the jackets wasn't just for show.

 

“They’re gonna ask you for your name, rank, make you swear on a stack of Bibles that you were there-” the captain snorts softly, and One elbows him in the side. Perhaps the first officer has a history of trouble such as this. “And then they start asking the deep stuff. Analyze Control’s motivation, what was your role in the battle? You can tell the truth there, that’s fine.”

 

It’s around this point that Spock starts to get a better idea of his summoning. Uncertain of any purpose behind their request, he had simply done what was requested of him and moved ‘on autopilot,’ to use the captain’s expression. But it seems they are intending to cover up Discovery’s disappearance well.

 

“Next, they’ll probably ask you what exactly you saw.”

 

“Here’s where it gets funky,” the captain interjects, but volunteers no further data. One, seemingly accustomed to this, continues.

 

“The only conclusion that we need to all reach is that Discovery exploded. If each of us were to present an alternative theory as to why, that would be ideal, so we won’t go over that together.”

 

“‘Prefer not to speculate’ as much as possible,” Captain Pike interjects again, once again unhelpful given that Spock was just told the opposite, but if this mission has taught him anything, it’s that something can be two things at once. “They’re all dead, facts are facts.”

 

“And lastly,” One says, and makes no move to rise though Spock senses that this is nearly a dismissal. “Just blame Section 31 for everything. Have a good night, Spock. We reach Starbase Eleven tomorrow morning.”

 

Spock rises so fast that the blood rushes from his head. He understands that there is little danger in any of this, that his captain and first officer are consummate professionals alongside romantic partners, and are among the most trustworthy people in the world. But this whole situation, from the rose garden to the conspiracy, has put him at unease. When he turns back to look at them one more time, they are instead regarding each other, heads tilted to face the other and smiling gently. It is a look he recognizes from his mother.

 

He’s still caught up in looking at the captain and the first officer, however, that he nearly bumps into another on the path. He’s back in uniform, but the man he recognizes to be Michael’s former partner is still in leather, also sporting a mildly unkempt beard. He enters the rose garden with the same hesitance that Spock sported during his own arrival.

 

“Ah, Lieutenant Tyler,” he hears the captain say. “Have a seat. We have some logistics to talk about concerning Discovery’s explosion.”


End file.
